[Sportschosun Reporter Jang Jong-ho] A study has found that changes in 'good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol)' after a kidney transplant are an important indicator for predicting cardiovascular disease and transplanted kidney function.
A research team led by Lim Jeong-hoon of the Department of Nephrology at Chilgok Kyungpook National University Hospital and Cho Jang-hee of the Department of Nephrology at Kyungpook National University Hospital recently published the findings of a large-scale study of 4,446 kidney transplant recipients registered in the Korean Organ Transplantation Registry (KOTRY) in the internationally recognized journal Scientific Reports (IF=4.9).
Kidney transplant is the most effective treatment for improving survival and quality of life in patients with end-stage kidney disease. However, even after a successful transplant, cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of death, and the function of the transplanted kidney also declines over time in many cases.
Until now, medical teams have mainly focused on managing blood pressure, blood sugar, and bad cholesterol (LDL), but the impact of changes in 'good cholesterol (HDL)' on the long-term outcomes of kidney transplant patients has not been fully understood.
The team compared HDL cholesterol levels before transplant and six months after transplant, then classified patients into four groups: persistently low, low-to-normal recovery, normal-to-low decline, and persistently normal. They then followed the patients over the long term.
The results showed that patients whose good cholesterol remained within the normal range had the lowest rates of cardiovascular disease and transplanted kidney failure.
By contrast, patients whose good cholesterol stayed low had about a 1.5 times higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease or losing the transplanted kidney. Even in patients whose levels recovered to normal after transplant, the risk remained about 1.4 times higher.
In particular, patients whose good cholesterol was normal before transplant but declined afterward had the worst overall prognosis, with the risk of losing transplanted kidney function rising by about threefold.
What stands out in this study is that how HDL changes after transplant was more important for predicting long-term outcomes than simply whether HDL levels were low.
The research team said, "We paid particular attention to the fact that cardiovascular risk did not disappear completely even in patients whose good cholesterol recovered to normal," and added, "This suggests that vascular damage may already have progressed because of prolonged exposure to low HDL before transplant."
Jang Jong-ho, bellho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
